Pilot in crash identified and other news from the areas around Chattanooga

Pilot in crash identified and other news from the areas around Chattanooga

December 20th, 2012by Staff Reports and Associated Press in Local Regional News

Plane crash tile

Plane crash tile

Photo by
WRCB-TV Channel 3
/Times Free Press.

Pilot in crash identified

CALHOUN, Ga. - Authorities have identified the pilot killed in a fiery crash of a small plane as 73-year-old Calhoun resident Roy Gardner Russom.

Deputy Coroner Bo Nicholson tells The Calhoun Times that Russom was the only person on board when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Calhoun's airport around 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen says the amateur-built aircraft crashed in the woods, burst into flames and was destroyed.

Mall ejects man for T-shirt

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - A man ejected from a Tennessee shopping mall said his T-shirt was a statement about the availability of guns in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting.

Stanley Bryce Myszka was removed from the Stones River Mall in Murfreesboro after shoppers complained Saturday about his T-shirt. It read, "Has your gun killed a kindergartner today?"

Mall spokeswoman Heather Rose said security officers asked Myszka three times to either remove the shirt or turn it inside out. When he refused, they escorted him out. He was charged with criminal trespassing and has been banned from the property.

Tornado relief grants coming

HACKLEBURG, Ala. - Nine local governments in north and west Alabama, including DeKalb County, have been awarded more than $15.7 million in grants to help with tornado recovery.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley announced the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants Wednesday. More than 250 people were killed in tornadoes across Alabama in April 2011.

Other grant recipients include Marion, Franklin and Tuscaloosa counties, Moulton, Phil Campbell, Cordova and the city of Tuscaloosa. The money will be spent on infrastructure repair, demolition of damaged structures and public building construction.

3 people killed in I-75 wreck

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. - Three people are dead after a semitrailer smashed into a concrete support pillar, sending a large sign into the path of another vehicle along Interstate 75 northwest of Atlanta.

State transportation officials say the southbound lanes of I-75 were closed after the wreck early Wednesday morning. Authorities say the crash happened shortly before 2 a.m. in Bartow County, near exit 296 and the intersection of Cassville-White Road.